Celebrating a Ruling, AIDS Group Rallies on City Hall Steps

By LYNDA RICHARDSON

Published: July 22, 1998

Waving mocking placards of a smiling Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani stamped ''AIDS criminal'' in blood red, about 45 people from a housing advocacy group rallied yesterday for improved services for people with AIDS on the steps of City Hall, New York's most famous soapbox.

The boisterous demonstration came a day after a Federal judge in Manhattan ruled that a city policy banning large groups from holding news conferences on the City Hall steps was unconstitutional, saying that the Mayor had used the policy selectively to allow groups like the Young Republicans to gather, while blocking Housing Works, a combative advocacy group that has been critical of him.

With utter relish, the demonstrators yesterday tested the judge's ruling and crowded the stone steps of City Hall in front of news cameras and reporters, as if for a class picture. The group released a report that accused the Giuliani administration of failing to comply with a year-old city law intended to strengthen AIDS services.

Some protesters exercised their reaffirmed free-speech rights by shouting at the top of their lungs, ''Hey, Rudy, it's the law, duh!'' Police officers stood nearby but did not intervene. The Mayor was in the Bronx during the protest.

Acknowledging the significance of the Federal judge's ruling, the co-executive director of Housing Works, Charles A. King, said the Giuliani administration had been more restrictive than any other administration in prohibiting people from exercising their right to hold rallies and conduct other free-speech activities.

Housing Works, an offshoot of Act Up New York, was organized in 1990 to provide housing, advocacy and other services to homeless people infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The nonprofit group is involved in a separate legal dispute with the Giuliani administration over city contracts it claims were canceled as payback for years of vitriolic protests.

In this latest legal episode, Housing Works had recently requested to hold a rally with as many as 50 people on the steps of City Hall but was turned down. In response, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the group challenging the city's policy of limiting the number of people to 25 at such events.

''These steps and access to them have been denied in an arbitrary and capricious manner for too long,'' said City Councilman Stephen DiBrienza, a Brooklyn Democrat who joined the rally, along with Councilman Thomas K. Duane, a Manhattan Democrat.

The two Council members were the sponsors of Local Law 49, which was intended to protect and improve services provided by the New York City Human Resources Administration's Division of AIDS Services and Income Support. The division serves more than 23,000 poor people with the AIDS virus.

Under the law, the division's clients have the right to benefits like transportation, nutrition allowances and safe housing that is appropriate for people with suppressed immune systems. But the report released by Housing Works said the Giuliani administration had violated the law in nine major areas, including requiring people infected with H.I.V. to submit to an ''eligibility verification review'' to get services. In January the advocacy group obtained an order in State Supreme Court to prohibit the city from continuing the reviews, but the city has appealed that decision.

In addition, the report said that thousands of infected people, including 3,000 on public assistance, were unaware that they were eligible for special benefits and services because the city had refused to publicize and carry out the new law's expanded eligibility criteria appropriately.

Mr. King said the Mayor had held the law in contempt. ''We fully expected a good faith effort, but there has not been a good faith effort.''

The Mayor's office referred questions about the rally to a spokeswoman for the city's Health Department, Sandra Mullin, who did not respond to Housing Works' specific allegations. Ms. Mullin said the city had done a great deal to help people with H.I.V. and AIDS. ''It's not surprising that Housing Works would take this stance and simply ignore all that has been accomplished,'' she said.